Donald Trump's election to the White House could delay hush money trial sentencing, kill pending criminal prosecutions, experts say

Donald Trump’s election victory could delay the sentencing for his conviction in the Manhattan hush money case and kill the federal cases against him, legal experts say.

The once and future president faces a tangle of legal issues that will be delayed or even disappear thanks to his reelection, according to state and federal defense attorneys.

There is an ongoing case brought in Georgia by Fulton County District Attorney General Fani Willis, who charged the former president with trying to overturn the 2020 election. Trump faces two federal criminal cases — one for violating secrecy laws in Washington, D.C., and another in Florida federal court for attempted insurrection of the U.S. government.

Most pressing, however, is the sentencing of the former president in Manhattan scheduled for Nov. 26.

In May, a jury convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a scheme to keep a former adult film star quiet about an alleged affair. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged that the former president had tried to squelch word of the tryst to keep voters in the dark during the 2016 presidential election.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said he would sentence Trump at the end of the month, but putting a president-elect behind bars could pose some risks, defense attorney Arthur Aidala told Newsday.

"Everyone has a degree of self-preservation," Aidala said. "I don’t see the judge throwing him behind bars. The threats to the judge would be out of control."

More likely, Aidala said, the win at the ballot box will buy Trump some time.

"I can see the judge dressing him down, telling him you shouldn’t have done what you did, but holding off the sentencing until after he leaves office," Aidala said Wednesday. 

But legal opinions differ on what could happen next.

Trial lawyer Mark Zauderer, of the firm Dorf Nelson & Zauderer, said it would be unlikely for the sentencing to be suspended.

"I think there’s a high likelihood that he would impose some sentence," he said.

A punishment that doesn’t carry prison time would likely survive a higher court appeal, Zauderer said. However, if Merchan tried to throw him behind bars, the judge would get no support from the higher courts due to the "supremacy clause" — a legal principle of U.S. law that dictates federal law trumps state law, the attorney said.

Former Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini, now a partner at Nixon Peabody, said that under the supremacy clause, states can’t prosecute a sitting president.

Sini said that defense lawyers could argue there's no difference between a sitting president and a president-elect.

The federal issue of presidential immunity also hangs over the case.

Merchan originally scheduled the sentencing for July, but delayed it to September after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution of their official acts.

Defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove argued the high court’s ruling should override the jury’s verdict and moved to set aside the verdict. Merchan said he would rule on that motion next week.

Sini said defense lawyers could use the immunity issue to put the case off for many years by deferring to the federal court system.

D.C. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan has yet to rule on the immunity issue in the insurrection case brought against Trump for allegedly interfering with the certification of the 2020 election.

"They could ask the judge to delay sentencing until that happens," Sini said.

If Merchan rules that Trump is not immune from prosecution, defense lawyers would likely appeal, prompting another delay.

Blanche and Bove did not respond to an email seeking comment. Defense lawyer Susan Necheles declined to comment.

Under the same federalist principles that prevent states from prosecuting sitting presidents, Trump would not be able to pardon himself or dismiss the New York or Georgia cases.

But Zauderer and Sini agreed that the federal cases against the president-elect would likely not go forward.

"Based on everything he said and knowing Trump’s view, it’s likely that he’ll get those cases dismissed," Zauderer said. "He could do it through the attorney general, by appointing someone who is willing to do his bidding ... He may be bold and order the Justice Department to just dismiss the case."

Most incoming presidents replace federal prosecutors from the previous administration.